PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Lynn’s Aidan Dowe struck out five batters in five innings of work.
By HAROLD RIVERA
LYNN– After a loss to Medford on Sunday, the Lynn 14-year-old all-stars were hungry for a win in Monday’s Babe Ruth State Tournament game against Revere. Aidan Dow cruised on the mound and the Lynn bats exploded for 10 runs in a 10-0 five-inning mercy rule win over Revere at Breed.
“We had a major hiccup on Sunday against Medford,” Lynn coach Dave Galeazzi said. “We walked nine and committed seven errors in the field. The boys came back tonight and did what they had to do. Revere’s a hot and cold team, it’s trick or treat with them.”
Dow allowed just two hits and four walks in his five innings of work, while fanning five Revere batters. He also scored the final run of the evening when he raced home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth to seal the 10-0 win.
“He (Dow) did a great job,” Galeazzi said. “He only allowed two hits. In the two years I’ve coached him in Babe Ruth, that’s the best game I’ve seen him pitch. He was very consistent, he kept his arm up, he pounded the strike zone and his curveball was working. He was on all cylinders.”
After Revere stranded a pair of baserunners in the top of the first, Lynn struck for two runs in the bottom half of the frame. Kyle Durant led off with a double and Kevin Pena followed with a single. Nico Galeazzi brought Durant home with a RBI single for the 1-0 lead. A pop-up from Luke Mannion’s bat dropped, allowing Pena to come home and boost Lynn’s edge to 2-0.
Dow worked around a two-out single in the top of the second to keep Revere off the board.
Jared DeFillipo’s two-out double in the bottom of the second turned out to be the start of a five-run Lynn rally that stretched a 2-0 game into a comfortable 7-0 lead. DeFillipo came home on a throwing error to make it 3-0. A balk allowed Shawn Anderson to score Lynn’s fourth run and a delayed steal saw Durant score to bump Lynn’s lead to 5-0. Nico Galeazzi added a RBI double and later scored on another Revere error to make it 7-0.
“We can always preach things and we try to go that extra step,” Galeazzi said. “We worked two delayed steals to perfection. We work on that stuff a lot in practice and it really paid off. We scored a few runs on that and added a couple hits.”
Lynn cooled down in the bottom halves of the third and fourth innings, but plated three more runs in the fifth. Galeazzi led off the fifth with a single and advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt. A RBI triple off Mannion’s bat allowed Galeazzi to trot home for the 8-0 lead. Dow followed suit with a RBI triple of his own, scoring Mannion, and raced home on a wild pitch on the ensuing at-bat to seal the 10-0 win.
“We told the kids before the game that we just had to put the ball in play tonight,” Galeazzi said. “We played Revere in Districts and we beat them 12-1. We didn’t really tattoo the ball but we put it on the ground and they made some errors.”
Lynn now turns its attention to Wednesday night’s (8 p.m.) matchup at Breed against Peabody. The last time Lynn and Peabody met, in the District round, it was the latter that took home a 1-0 win.
“We have a friendly, nice rivalry with Peabody,” Galeazzi said. “The last four times we’ve played Peabody, the games have all turned out to be 1-0 games. I expect the same.”
Lynn 13’s
Lynn 7, Newton 2
Lynn 13’s pitchers Christian Moran and Anthony Marino worked together to pitch a combined no-hitter. Moran, the starter, tossed the first five innings. Marino came on in relief and pitched the last two innings. Anthony Mateo notched the bit hit of the night with a bases-clearing double in the third inning. Lynn plated three in the third and added four more runs in the sixth. “It was a big team effort,” Lynn coach Brian O’Connor said. “Everybody earned walks and we grinded it out. We grinded out seven runs.” Lynn now awaits the No. 2 seed from the South for Thursday’s game at Breed.